The Diocese of Rajkot stretches over
the northwestern part of India, which
is the peninsula of Saurashtra and
Kutch; it has an area of 1, 09,990 sq.
kms. and a population of 16 million.
By the Papal Bull De Recta Fidelium
of Pope Paul VI the Catholic Diocese
of Rajkot came into being on 25 Feb,
1977. It comprises the civil districts
of Amreli, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar,
Junagadh, Porbandar, Rajkot and
Surendranagar, jointly known popularly
as Saurashtra and the district of
Kutch in Gujarat State.

Faced with the shortage of priests the
Jesuits invited the Carmelites of Mary
Immaculate (CMI), the first indigenous
religious congregation for men in
India, to work and develop this
mission territory in Saurashtra and
Kutch. In 1972 the then Superior
General Rev. Fr Theobald Pothanikat
CMI accepted the invitation and sent a
few pioneering ...